Nice to see the GH edging it’s way towards 700,000 copies. Really don’t understand how it doesn’t chart regularly like some of the other classic GHs??

It seems that their songs that are most important for the Greatest Hits' streaming sales - Say You'll Be There, 2 Become 1, Mama, Who Do You Think You Are, Spice Up Your Life, Too Much, Viva Forever, Move Over, Goodbye and Holler - unfortunately don't generate enough streams to equate to strong enough streaming units for the Greatest Hits album.

 

Wannabe being so massive compared to their other songs is a bit of a double-edged sword for them. With that being the go to Spice Girls song to include in most playlists, instead of there being a more even distribution amongst their other hits, that's not helpful for the UK chart. The top 2 most streamed songs from an album have their streaming contribution lowered to be the average of the 3rd to 12th most popular songs on the album (if the album has 12 tracks), so the impact of Wannabe and Stop's big success on Spotify is significantly reduced.

 

I know it's a bit bitter that I often compare them to Westlife lol, but Westlife's Greatest Hits album managed 756 streaming sales this week, out of 793 sales overall (#188 in this week's chart). Spice Girls was 685 streaming, out of 840 sales. Which means that despite the big Spotify push, Spice Girls' 3rd to 12th most streamed songs generated just 90% of what Westlife's 3rd to 12th songs managed, in what for them was just an ordinary week. I refuse to believe that the majority of Westlife singles are better remembered in the UK than all those Spice Girls #1s, so I think it really boils down to playlists. I don't think Westlife really have that one massive song that overshadows their other singles. They must have a healthy distribution of different songs in different playlists.

 

Just so I'm not focusing on Westlife all the time - Destiny's Child's No.1's album had 1,101 streaming sales this week, and 1,112 sales overall - to be #105 in this week's chart. That album is constantly in the Top 200 every week. Spice Girls managed just 62% of their streaming this week. Again, I think Destiny's Child not exactly having their own 'Wannabe' is very beneficial for them.

 

So... I think UMC really should try harder with Spice Girls on streaming platforms. I've banged on about it a bit too much lol but they really should move their Greatest Hits album up to be alongside their studio albums on Spotify. Just that extra visibility could help. They should include the radio edits of their singles in the Spice Girls' playlists. Songs such as Too Much, Goodbye and Holler need better playlist exposure to help lift up the Greatest Hits' sales. If UMC could manage to increase Spice Girls' streaming numbers in the UK (for the singles that aren't called Wannabe, lol) by just 15%, and maintain that, then they'd probably make the chart in most weeks. Frustratingly they're usually around 100 to 200 sales adrift of charting. That's why we only tend to see their GH album back in the charts when something has caused an increase in physical/download sales, to make up for their not overly stellar streaming.

The reason why Wannabe is getting so much exposure is clearly because it's the furthest song away from Forever in their discography x

The GH doesn't chart consistently as it doesn't get the advantage of double counting streams. Because it is filled with radio edits people have to actively listen to the radio edit for it to get streams, so any plays of the Spice version of Mama for instance only counts for Spice streams, where as if it was the exact same version not a radio edit and shorter version on the GH then a play would count as a stream for both albums.

 

Add to that their 2 main streaming playlists use the Spice and Spiceworld versions of singles not the GH radio edits so it doesn't even get help that way either.

 

If you look at the GH streams you can see the songs that do benefit from double counting (Wannabe, Stop and a couple more) as they are on massive stream totals where as the radio edit versions are on less than 5 million streams for most songs.

 

It's so frustrating as it's costing the GH a place charting every week. Also why they don't swap the likes of the Spice version of Mama on the this is and best of playlist is mind-boggling. The Spice version is over 5 minutes, it just means anyone listening to that playlist for an hour can't contribute as many streams as they would if they listened to it for an hour with the shorter radio edit versions on it so therefore streamed more songs in the same time.

Edited July 17, 20214 yr by sammy01

I'm not convinced that is the case... I don't think OCC really distinguishes between an album version vs a single version when it comes to what counts towards an album's streaming sales. For instance half of Destiny's Child's #1's album are edited versions which have significantly less streams on Spotify than the album versions, but it's regularly doing 1k+ streaming sales a week.

 

I think sadly it's just the case that the streams of some of Spice Girls' songs - album and radio versions combined - still isn't strong enough compared to other artists, and songs such as Too Much, Goodbye, Holler etc have a relatively poor presence on Spotify.

Also worth noting that Little Mix's Confetti album climbed 38-28 when the Confetti single mix came out. The top 2 most streamed songs on Confetti (which are downweighted and therefore don't have an impact on the album's streaming sales) likely changed to be Confetti the song and Sweet Melody (rather than Sweet Melody and one of Break Up Song / Holiday / No Time for Tears), resulting in a streaming bump for the album despite the Confetti single mix not being on the album.

So basically the label need to get the girls other songs on more playlists so that they are generating streams for those songs on the GH that it basically isn’t getting due to relying on people to actively choose to listen to those songs… this is why streaming is such bollocks when it comes to sales… it’s basically radio play.

Gosh the streaming 'rules' in the UK are so awful... but YES we know that they should absolutely have more presence in playlists across the world, not just the UK.

 

Jay is there any way you can relay this to their team at UMC? I know some fans were in direct contact with their team at the lable about the cover for the Wannabe EP (which was just silly anyway, I liked the original more) and they were responding, so I wonder if this could be relayed to them too?

I’m not sure where to contact them, did those fans share an email or another form of communication they’re using?

 

SpiceGirlsNet mentioned the other day that they’re in contact, so maybe they could make some suggestions! :heart:

 

I honestly think their This Is Spice Girls playlist shouldn’t be 40% dedicated to solo material. It’s not an appropriate place for it, particularly now that they have a solo playlist called “Songbook”. I find it crazy that they’ve disregarded a Spiceworld album track, over half of Forever & all B Sides! They should assume that if people are clicking onto and/or following This Is Spice Girls, then they’ve come for Spice Girls group songs. Not to hear Midnight Fantasy, I Know Him So Well, For Once In My Life etc...

 

 

If it was up to me, I would refresh their This Is Spice Girls playlist to look along these lines:

 

1. Wannabe

2. Stop

3. Spice Up Your Life

4. 2 Become 1 (Single Version from Greatest Hits)

5. Say You’ll Be There

6. Who Do You Think You Are (Radio Version from Greatest Hits)

7. Viva Forever (Radio Edit from Greatest Hits)

8. Too Much (Radio Edit from Greatest Hits)

9. Holler (Radio Edit from Greatest Hits)

10. Goodbye (Radio Edit from Greatest Hits)

11. Mama (Radio Version from Greatest Hits)

12. Let Love Lead the Way (Radio Edit from Greatest Hits)

13. Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)

14. Move Over

15. Love Thing

16. Never Give Up on the Good Times

17. If U Can’t Dance

18. Saturday Night Divas

19. Something Kinda Funny

20. Do It

21. Last Time Lover

22. Denying

23. Naked

24. The Lady Is a Vamp

25. Right Back at Ya

26. Tell Me Why

27. If You Wanna Have Some Fun

28. Get Down with Me

29. Wasting My Time

30. Weekend Love

31. Voodoo

32. Wannabe (Demo)

33. Bumper to Bumper

34. Feed Your Love

35. Take Me Home

36. One of These Girls

37. Baby Come Round

38. Mama (Album Version - Spice)

39. Who Do You Think You Are (Album Version - Spice)

40. Outer Space Girls

41. Walk of Life

42. Too Much (Album Version - Spiceworld)

43. Viva Forever (Album Version - Spiceworld)

44. Holler (Album Version - Forever)

45. Let Love Lead the Way (Album Version - Forever)

46. Time Goes By

47. Oxygen

48. Goodbye (Album Version - Forever)

49. Sleigh Ride (Jack Frost Soundtrack Version)

50. Christmas Wrapping

 

I didn’t include Spice Invaders because I don’t think any casual listener should be confronted with that :kink:

 

The two Christmas songs would be last for the majority of the year, but moved up during the Christmas period. Jack Frost version of Sleigh Ride because it’s shorter and probably less bewildering to a casual listener than the B Side talky version.

I think the girls see their solo careers as Spice Girls too, which to be fair so do I in some respects… however their Spotify just be solely just the group.

Downloads chart

#36 Wannabe

#55 GH

 

Sales

#36 Wannabe

Did we post the GH was #97 on the download chart on Friday.

According to OCC

 

Viva Forever sold 798,000 copies

 

First week sales 278,000

 

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/o...-forever__4580/

Thanks!!

 

That is 19k sold since November 2020 which isnt too bad (but not amazing either lol)

 

Really want Viva Forever to reach double platinum! It f***ing deserves it :cry:

Ah had hoped it would be well over 800k by now. Still a great amount though 💜

I would love love LOVE it if they did a TV performance of Viva Forever. We deserve that!

It’s done 58k since May 2019 when we got the last official OCC update of 740k that’s 2k a month on average so it should be 800k by August and hopefully be nearer to 810k by the end of the year

Nice that Viva Forever is on the verge of 800k! It deserves waaay more, but unfortunately it's not one of the most exposed Spice Girls songs on streaming platforms.

 

The article also states that it's achieved 12.1 million streams (which is since 2014).

 

 

Viva Forever sales updates we've had over the past 4 years:

 

798,000 - 23rd July 2021

781,519 - 13th November 2020

769,974 - 8th May 2020

740,000 - 24th May 2019

729,000 - 16th November 2018

726,000 - 1st November 2018

708,000 - 27th July 2017

 

 

 

My estimates for their sales totals as of 23rd July:

 

2,053,100 - Wannabe

1,341,800 - 2 Become 1

1,122,900 - Say You'll Be There

1,117,500 - Spice Up Your Life

954,900 - Goodbye

866,000 - Mama/Who Do You Think You Are

798,000 - Viva Forever

741,900 - Too Much

661,600 - Stop

311,400 - Holler/Let Love Lead the Way

126,100 - Mama

60,700 - Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)

20,700 - Let Love Lead the Way

 

 

Estimates for forthcoming significant sales totals / changes in the order of their best sellers, within the first half of this decade:

 

August 2021 - Viva Forever - 800,000

September 2021 - Combining the sales of Mama/Who Do You Think You Are as a Double A Side, and Mama as a separate entity, should exceed 1,000,000

November 2021 - Wannabe - 2,100,000

Late 2021/Early 2022 - Spice Up Your Life possibly overtaking Say You'll Be There (if their average weekly sales stay roughly the same)

February 2022 - Stop - 700,000

June 2022 - Too Much - 750,000

July 2022 - Wannabe - 2,200,000

September 2022 - Mama/Who Do You Think You Are - 900,000

December 2022 - Mama (by itself) - 150,000

December 2022 - Stop - 750,000

January 2023 - Stop might overtake Too Much early this month, at which point their sales would both be approximately 756,000

February 2023 - 2 Become 1 - 1,400,000

March 2023 - Wannabe - 2,300,000

May 2023 - Spice Up Your Life - 1,200,000 [2xPlatinum]

September 2023 - Stop - 800,000

October 2023 - Wannabe - 2,400,000 [4xPlatinum]

February 2024 - Say You'll Be There - 1,200,000 [2xPlatinum]

June 2024 - Wannabe - 2,500,000

June 2024 - Mama/Who Do You Think You Are - 950,000

June 2024 - Mama (by itself) - 175,000

November 2024 - Stop might overtake Viva Forever towards the end of this month, their sales totals could be approaching 878,000

 

By the end of the 90s, the order of best selling to worst selling singles from Spiceworld was: Spice Up Your Life / Too Much / Viva Forever and Stop. Viva Forever eventually overtook Too Much during the era of downloads. As we can see above, by the mid point of the 2020s, Stop could be their 2nd best seller from the album!

Both Viva Forever and Stop deserve to be well over 1million by now!!! Damn UK GP and their lack of taste!!!

 

Thank you JayJay x

Such a shame as some people will look at these totals and think ‘those songs weren’t big’ as they’ll compare them to the over inflated streaming sales of today

 

What’s so amazing is 90% of their single sales are pure cd and download sales

 

I do wish songs like Viva Forever had a higher sales total - it’s such an underrated single.